Within the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2022, St. Paul, Minnesota, murder detectives Abby DeSanto and Jennifer O’Donnell had been known as to a downtown condo constructing to research a reported suicide. A 32-year-old lady named Alexandra Pennig had been discovered lifeless in her rest room with a single gunshot wound to the pinnacle.
For the detectives, what actually occurred to Pennig is one thing that also haunts them to at the present time. And it is the query on the heart of “The Unusual Capturing of Alex Pennig,” reported by “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales. An encore of the episode is streaming on Paramount+.
Terri Randall/Mary Jo Pennig
When detectives DeSanto and O’Donnell arrived on the condo, they discovered Pennig had not been alone on the time of her demise. A person named Matthew Ecker was additionally there. Ecker and Pennig had been each nurses and had met two years earlier once they labored on the similar clinic. Ecker advised first responders the gun was his, and that Pennig had grabbed it, locked herself within the rest room, after which fired the shot. “I assumed all the pieces was nice,” he mentioned. “After which she simply grabbed the gun.” Ecker advised first responders that after he heard the shot he instantly broke open the lavatory door: “I attempted to do what I may. After which I washed my arms … That is why I haven’t got something on my arms.” Ecker mentioned he then known as 911. Nevertheless it was too late. He mentioned he did not know why Pennig would do that.
In Pennig’s condo, there was alcohol and 6 bottles of prescription treatment, together with antidepressants, all prescribed to Pennig. For the detectives, it urged Alex might need been depressed, they usually questioned if Ecker’s story that she took her personal life was true.
However in addition they seen one thing that appeared to contradict Ecker’s story. He had mentioned he washed his arms within the rest room sink earlier than calling 911, however DeSanto recalled the primary responders advised her the sink was dry. “The sink was dry. If he had mentioned, , he known as the police instantly, that sink in all probability would’ve been nonetheless moist,” DeSanto defined, “however it was very dry in there.”
When O’Donnell regarded into Pennig’s background, she realized from Alex’s dad and mom that Alex had struggled up to now with despair and habit. “I had requested, um, if she had been suicidal up to now, um, and pa mentioned, she had, um, tried, uh, to overdose earlier than,” mentioned O’Donnell. In line with Alex’s father, Jim Pennig, a number of years prior, Alex had taken a handful of capsules “after which had advised her mother that she was making an attempt suicide.” After that, Alex’s dad and mom advised the detectives they despatched her to rehab, and she or he ultimately received clear. Regardless of her previous struggles, Alex’s dad and mom advised O’Donnell they’d simply seen her at Thanksgiving. And her mother, Mary Jo Pennig, had simply talked to her that night. “She was doing effectively,” she mentioned. For them, the concept their daughter had died by suicide didn’t make sense. “Realizing your child, it did not match,” Mary Jo Pennig mentioned.
Since Ecker was the final individual to see Alex Pennig alive, the detectives zeroed in on him. “He is the one one that may inform us what occurred. He was the one one which was there,” mentioned O’Donnell. They questioned Ecker about what had occurred that night time. He mentioned he and Alex Pennig had gone out to a number of native bars, and once they arrived again at her place, all the pieces was nice: “We had been laughing on the way in which house,” mentioned Ecker. DeSanto requested him if, as soon as they received into the condo, they’d gotten right into a combat. Ecker mentioned they didn’t.
DET. ABBY DESANTO: You guys weren’t arguing or something?
MATTHEW ECKER: No.
DET. ABBY DESANTO: There is no combat with you two?
MATTHEW ECKER: Not between us.
For hours, Ecker continued to say Pennig had locked herself within the rest room, fired the shot after which he broke open the door to attempt to assist her: “That gun went off behind a closed door … I didn’t shoot her.“
Ramsey County District Courtroom 
However the detectives had their doubts. Then they received a name from the forensic unit that was nonetheless processing the scene. And in accordance with O’Donnell, what they discovered modified all the pieces. “As soon as Alex was moved, they discovered beneath the place Alex had been laying was a spherical steel piece,“ she mentioned. It was the form of a hoop, and in regards to the dimension of 1 / 4. O’Donnell mentioned it was a part of the lock from the lavatory door, and the truth that it had been found below Pennig was key. “For us, it meant that the door was pressured open earlier than she was shot.”
The detectives felt the invention of the steel ring proved Ecker had lied and had not damaged the door open after he heard the shot. The detectives suspected Pennig and Ecker had argued and that she had locked the lavatory door to get away from him. Then Ecker broke open the door, the steel half broke off and fell to the bottom, after which he shot Pennig and she or he landed on prime of it.
Ecker was charged with second-degree homicide. In February 2024 he was convicted and later sentenced to 30 years.
